Montreal Real Estate Stats December 2017

Four of the six* main areas of the Montréal CMA registered an increase in sales in December 2017 as compared to December 2016.

Laval, the Island of Montréal and the South Shore set the tone with strong sales increases of 20, 15 and 15 per cent, respectively.

Condominium sales were extremely robust in December, jumping by 35 per cent. In fact, the 978 condo transactions registered last month represent a new December sales record.

Sales of plexes (2 to 5 dwellings) increased by 5 per cent, while sales of single-family homes fell slightly by 1 per cent”

The condominium segment just registered its largest monthly price increase in almost seven years,” said Mathieu Cousineau, President of the GMREB Board of Directors. “The number of months of inventory has been falling steadily for two years now, and this is increasingly reflected by an upward pressure on prices. Many areas are even in a seller’s market for condominiums,” added Mr. Cousineau.

Inventory of property for sale fell for a 27th consecutive month. In December, there were 24,520 active residential listings in the Centris® system, a 9 per cent drop compared to one year earlier.

According to Macleans.ca & Moneysense:

“Canada’s real estate is actually balanced

According to Robert Hogue, senior economist with RBC Economics, there is “limited downside risks to prices in the near term in Canada” as the majority of housing markets, including Toronto, are “in balance.”

Based on the sales-to-new listings ratio—where 50% is a balanced market—the overall Canadian market appears to be balanced, according to RBC Economics December Monthly Housing Market report. Toronto and Calgary are also in balanced territory while Montreal and Vancouver are still leaning towards a seller’s market.”

Despite the recent interest rate hikes of 2017 and the new tighter mortgage rules which came into effect Jan 1, 2018, factors which are expected to take the steam out of the Canadian housing markets, not all provinces are equal.

“According to CREA estimates sales activity will decline across Canada (by 5.3%), as a well as in B.C. (by 3.7%), in Alberta (by 2.8%), in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (3.8% and 3.9%, respectively) and in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (by 0.5% and 2.8%, respectively). The two hardest hit provinces will be Ontario, with an almost 10% decline in activity (9.6%) and Prince Edward Island, with a 7.4% decrease in sales activity.

The only provinces predicted to have increased sales activity in 2018—albeit at anemic rates—are Quebec (0.9%) and Newfoundland (1.3%).” Only in Quebec average prices are expected to beat the national anemic rates, with a 4.2% increase in average sales prices.

Based on the prospect of further mortgage rate increases in 2018, buyers would be wise to get pre-approved now, or as soon as possible, since that interest rates will be guaranteed for a period of time while buyers shop. Even if interest rates were to increase, the buyer would be protected by the pre-approval rate given to him/her at the time of their pre-approval.

Check out this article from Macleans,

The 91 most important economic charts to watch in 2018

Since 2014, when Maclean’s first asked economists, investors, analysts and financial commentators to submit what they thought would be an important chart Canadians should watch in the year ahead, our annual collection of charts has grown from 35 contributions to nearly 100 this year.

Paul Cardinal from the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards, told Jamie Orchard of Global News, “the last time growth in Montreal sales outpaced Toronto and Vancouver was in 1998.” “Sales of homes exceeding $1 million rose 20 per cent in Greater Montreal and condos priced above $500,000 were up 42 per cent. The total value of sales grew 13 per cent to $16.2 billion, about half of which was on the Island of Montreal.”

Cardinal forecasts another strong year in 2018 with the number of sales increasing by five per cent. Average prices are also expected to increase almost five per cent. All in all, Montreal capped a strong year with total sales across Greater Montreal increasing 10 per cent to 2,781 in December. While sales on the Island of Montreal increased 15 per cent, it was outpaced by Laval at 20 per cent and on par with the south shore.

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